Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Guys With Kids. (NBC)

Celebrities are really at their best when they get a forum on Huffington Post, don't you think? Whether it's the award-winning James Franco, a huffy Alec Baldwin or a proselytizing Jenny McCarthy.

But usually these stars stay on topic: either promoting a personal cause or giving you their armchair analysis from an "expert's" perspective. (Or just talking about whatever is going on in their lives right now.)

That's why it was so exciting to see NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar weigh in recently on his feelings about Lena Dunham's HBO show, in an article called Girls Just Wants to Have (White) Fun.

Yesssss ...

It's not as if Mr. Abdul-Jabbar breaks any new ground in his article, which rehashes the same arguments about Girls that have been made a million times by less famous people. Like it's "mostly white" and the characters are "too self-conscious" and "not funny," plus "They like to talk about (and sometimes engage in) sex." All valid, if slightly overworn, points!

But then you read into the substance below the basketball legend's talking points, and things just start getting weird:

This season that white ghetto was breached by a black character who is introduced as some jungle fever lover, with just enough screen time to have sex and mutter a couple of lines about wanting more of a relationship. A black dildo would have sufficed and cost less.

As Donald Glover playing a black Republican law student would say, "What?"

Also, did you know that Wonderfalls and Seinfeld were both "braver" and funnier than Girls?

Seinfeld made it a point to ridicule the characters' shallowness and self-involvement, raising it to a level of social commentary. And it was funny. Two other girl-centric shows that reached these same heights to be voices of a generation were My So-Called Life and Wonderfalls. Both funny, yet also insightful and original. Perhaps that's why they both only lasted one season before becoming cult hits. Girls, a safer more mousy voice, has already been renewed for a third season.

In summary, Mr. Abdul-Jabbar loves Girls:

Girls' heart and mind is in the right place. It wants to be more than the sum of its familiar parts. And sometimes it is. Maybe this season its voice will be louder and clearer and have more to say. It's worth listening for.

Lena Dunham tweets to new cast member, Donald Glover (Twitter)

Yesterday, Ms. Dunham confirmed that Mr. Glover would be joining the show.

"We’re entering sort of Battlestar Galactica territory, and he’s going to be the ship captain," Ms. Dunham told TV Line in an exclusive reveal of the newest cast member of the hit HBO show.

This might come as a surprise to some of the other actors on Girls. During a chance encounter at the Gowanus Yacht Club on Sunday, The New York Observer asked Adam Driver (who plays Adam, the sexual psychopath f-buddy of the protagonist,) about Mr. Glover's involvement. "I don't know who that is," he replied, with a shrug. "It's entirely possible." He added.

If you thought this would quiet the critics who claimed that Girls' all-white ensemble was the manifestation of hipster racism, think again. Ms. Dunham told Terry Gross during her NPR interview last week that she "wanted to avoid was tokenism in casting," which is exactly what the Post accused her of the moment they got wind of Mr. Glover's appearance.

"'Girls' quick fix" read the headline of the piece, which was followed by the subhead, "Dunham films with black actor first week back on set." And in case that didn't spell it out for you, here's the opener:

“Girls,” which has been blasted in the media for its lack of diversity, began filming its second season in Brooklyn this week.

And surprise, surprise, the creator and star of the HBO show, Lena Dunham, was photographed filming on a stoop with African-American “Community” actor Donald Glover.

That "tokenism" quote makes it into the Post article as well.
Slammed if you do, slammed if you don't: we'd tell Ms. Dunham not to mind the haters...Mr. Glover will be a great addition to the show. The only thing Girls needs to do to shake off the racetroversy is make sure that Lesley Arfin stops tweeting.

Donald Glover on '30 Rock's webisode

Now that Community is on hiatus and with an uncertain future (although he always has his rap alter-ego to fall back on), Donald Glover has gone back to where his career started: on 30 Rock.

On a recent webisode of The Jack Donaghy Files, Mr. Glover auditioned as Childish Gambino for Jack Donaghy, alongside Ryan Adams and Michael McDonald from The Doobie Brothers.

We could write this off as a bit of NBC cross-promotional backscratching...if Community was still on. As Mr. Glover started out as a writer for 30 Rock straight out of college before moving out to L.A. to take the part of Troy in Community, one could read this reunion as a winking alumni reference to audience members who knew that Mr. Glover wrote for the show. Or it could honestly be promoting Childish Gambino.

But we'd like to think that this is Mr. Glover's way of hedging his bets: if Dan Harmon's awesome sitcom doesn't go back on air, maybe there's a place at TGS for a new character (especially once Alec Baldwin leaves and the show will need all the fan-love they can get).

Watch Donald Glover's other 30 Rock cameos:

Photo for MTV2 Presents: Converse Band of Ballers by Brad Barket of PictureGroup

On Monday, The Observer braved the heat and schlepped down to the LES home of the City’s second-oldest Catholic high school, La Salle Academy. The alma mater of pro-baller Ron Artest was an all-too-appropriate venue for the filming of the third-annual Converse Band of Ballers 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament to air on MTV2 in mid-August.

Despite being a celebrity basketball tournament on paper, the event ran itself in a fashion similar to a dog fight with each team’s celebrity leaders sitting on the sidelines fanning themselves to keep cool while their streetballer pit-bulls fought it out gladiator-style in the 100+ degree gymnasium amidst a crowd of aggressive fans, and one overzealous commentator.

We found the Brooklyn-bred, indie rock group Matt & Kim in a classroom, away from the mêlée, notably chipper and dry after their first game.

“Have you seen his body? He’s a got a good body, and that’s how I judge basketball players.” Kim Schifino told The Observer with a giggle, when we asked her if her teammate (Community star and rapper) Donald Glover was as good at basketball as he is at everything else.

Ms. Schifino and her partner Matt Johnson came to Monday’s tournament ready to compete—as was evident when Matt approached us wearing what he told us were “custom extra-short shorts,” which were noticeably shorter than Kim’s shorts.

The indie-rock-famous duo catapulted to fame from humble Brooklyn-band beginnings—one of their albums is even named after Williamsburg’s Grand Avenue—and like Williamsburg, have grown out of simple hipster-fandom to mainstream recognition.  On a similar note, The Observer recently spotted a Lamborghini in Williamsburg. When we told the pair about the incident and asked whether they were now “part of the problem,” Matt admitted that while they have yet to see the car in question, yes they are now part of the problem, as they recently drove down Bedford Avenue with the top down in a white Chrysler Sebring Convertible. He noted: “Kim was so embarrassed she got in the back of the car, laid down, and hid.”

Contrary to her absurdly-uniformed partner, Ms. Schifino was quite serious about the tournament, “I grew up following the Celtics. My mom even had a Larry Bird poster in the house” she told us, adding “Larry Bird was not an attractive guy, but I’m certain my mom would’ve fucked him.”

Ms. Schifino’s pro-baller attitude carried onto the court and it was quickly apparent that Team Brooklyn didn’t come to Band of Ballers to mess around. Despite having close to no basketball experience themselves, Matt and Kim do have some friends in the game. In addition to Mr. Johnson, Ms. Schifino, and Mr. Glover, Team Brooklyn consisted of Jack “Black Jack” Ryan, a Brooklyn native and streetball icon, Pat The Roc, the self-proclaimed “King of Streetball,” and Ryan “Special FX” Williams, who played in college at St. John’s University and is presently an actively touring professional streetballer.

As The Observer watched from the sidelines it became startlingly clear that the tournament itself seemed to be less a tournament between artists, and more a contest to see who was better connected to actual “ballers.” Outside of the misinformed Team Swell—rap group Chiddy Bang, who were thoroughly dominated by their competition—none of the other recording artists made it onto the hardwood to compete in Monday’s tournament.

Equally misinformed, Lil Twist—the seventeen-year-old artist sent to represent the notoriously-elusive Lil Wayne as the replacement captain of the Young Money Entertainment team—seemed slightly confused as to the nature of the event. The miniature rapper wore sunglasses, a large diamond-studded link chain, and knee-high polka-dot socks. Mr. Twist didn’t play. He just sat on the bench, the tags still dangling from his new converse sneakers.